This is how it isHow expectations, assumptions, ideologies, theories and opinions can distort our perception.

“This is how it is, this is how it is, this is who you are, this is who you are, this is who I am, this is who I am”. The voice on the cassette tape was Ram Dass's, a Yogi, American spiritual teacher and former psychology professor at Harvard University. He was explaining how we each have created our own reality and try to convince others of its validity.

We can never know the world directly because we perceive it through our senses and mind. They interface with the world accurately enough that science is possible. We express this fact with the statement “seeing is believing”. As obvious as it seems that is not always the case as illustrated by Adelson’s Checker shadow illusion shown below. ​

​If “seeing is believing”, squares A and B are clearly different shades of gray.​Square B looks​ considerably lighter than square A.​

Using Photoshop I have copied the squares from the above image and placed them side by side so they are easy to compare. Suddenly, when taken out of context, squares A and B are exactly the same color! ​​

It is hard to believe that our mind could make such an error. Watch it happen in the video below.​

​Adelson’s Checker board and the Ames room illusion are great reminders that although it seems our senses give us an incredibly accurate picture of the world other influences such as expectations, assumptions, ideologies, theories and our opinions, play a powerful role in the reality the mind creates. "Seeing is believing" now starts to become "believing is seeing".

The brain is about 2% of the body weight but consumes about 20% of the energy on a daily basis. In order to save energy and time the brain pre-consciously processes the information it receives, then combines it with other available information our expectations and beliefs to generate our conscious reality. As functional as this arrangement is we have seen from the two illusions the reality it creates may not be totally accurate.

​When we are dealing with visual representations of physical objects, like the two illusions, it is easy to check and see if the presentation the mind generates is correct. However, when the objective data is sparse or overly complex and expectations, assumptions, ideologies, theories and opinions (samskaras) are plentiful the possibility of an inaccurate reality being generated is high and hard to measure.

The samskaras, based on our past experience, assumptions and fears, are a filter on the reality of the present moment situation.Our reality, “our truth”, however distorted, may seem rock solid enough to die, or kill, for.

Samskaras are often not mental attitudes which we have rationally or consciously created or even accepted. More often than not they are unconsciously absorbed from our environment (family, schooling, religion, political affiliation, social groups, etc) as part of a survival strategy.

​Although their original purpose may have been to help us survive, in time, some of our samskaras become outdated and dysfunctional. Unexamined they all become mental prisons.​

Becoming aware of and releasing the attachments to our samskaras present and future suffering may be avoided.